I was surprised by the outcome of this comic. The two protagonists that we meet in the previous issue, Caed and Bethbara, meet a tribe of little people and are subject to a hallucinatory experience with the elder woman of the tribe. At which point Caed finds himself on the battlefield with Artuk the dead king, and ends up taking his place. Whereas Bethbara, after ascending into the sky, becomes a queen and, seemingly, is set in opposition to the new king of the dead. Very much not where I saw the two characters going, which is always a lovely treat in a story like this one. Parkhouse is pulling on some very deeply mythic language and imagery in this series, and his combinations of North American and British legend and myth is simply wonderful. He treats each with respect, and reminds us that there are undeniable similarities in the systems of belief that have stirred the great civilizations that arose in both of those places. The final page of the story teases that a sequel, The Silver Circle, "may appear at a later date," but from what I can tell that later date has not yet arrived. I can only hope.
I recommend this one, if you can find a copy of the two issues. Lovely art, cool story, and definitely a deep read. I feel like I'll be coming back to this one, one day.
To be continued.
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